Amazing Race: Unruly Camels

dunebuggie

Teams stayed in Abu Dhabi for this leg where they learned it is a bad idea to drive straight up a sand dune and camels can be unruly if you dress them up. Come learn what Amy, Steve and I think about cars with eco-boost in this Amazing Race recap of the episode, “One Hot Camel.”

As the episode began, we all made our guesses about who was going home at the end of the leg. Amy felt it would be the blondes with boobs. Even though the baseball wives had a speedbump, I felt like they could still make it up and not be in last place so I thought it would be the blondes with boobs too. Steve decided to be crazy and pick the Afghanimals, even though they were in first place.

Eco-Boost

Teams had to drive themselves to their first clue, but first they had to figure out how to get into their Ford Explorers WITH ECO-BOOST. Sorry, I found the eco-boost bit hilarious. Teams had to use the satchel of coins they picked up in Norway (you know, when they were dragging things with their Ford Tuff trucks) and decipher the clue to get into their locked cars. They had to put the coins in order of the design that was on the bag and then flip the coins over to get the number for the keypad on the car door. I wish the race had more of these types of clues. I want teams to figure out more stuff than just be told where to go. Make them use their brains a bit. This was something that most teams figured out very quickly, except the blondes. They were holding up the coins to the car door and wandering around trying to get in before they realized what they had to do.

blondescoins

All the teams were warned there was a u-turn on this leg. The ER doctors already planned on using their Express Pass so they could avoid that whole mess. The Exes were worried that Providence Amy and Jason would u-turn them. Marie said it would be what she would do so she knew the Exes had to get to it first. At least she expects it.

Dune Buggies

Teams had to jump in dune buggies and find the clue box in the sand dunes. The Afghanimals and ER docs arrived at the same time, but the ER docs got their dune buggy stuck in the sand so the Afghanimals got to the clue box first. I did notice something with the ER docs. Nicole was not wearing her helmet correctly. I don’t know if she couldn’t get the visor open so she decided instead of removing the helmet, she would wear it on the back part of her head with the strap choking her chin. That seems almost worse than no helmet. I am guessing the producers made the contestants wear helmets for safety, but how did they let her wear it like that?

helmet

 

Providence Amy and Jason were the second team to leave the pit stop, but they got lost like they usually do so they didn’t get to the sand dunes until after the first two teams were leaving. Providence Amy wanted to chat with her best friends, the ER docs. She was trying to tell them that she hoped they didn’t get u-turned by anyone. Nicole brushed her off, saying they had to go and to have fun. Is it really a time to stop and chat when everyone is trying to get to the u-turn first? Providence Amy and Jason finished right before the Exes so they were headed off to the next clue back to back.

The blondes and baseball wives got to the dunes at the same time. The blondes were used to driving in the dunes at Pismo. I know those dunes! They got in and out quickly. The baseball wives, on the other hand, got stuck big time in the sand. I feel they would not have gotten stuck if they did not go straight up a hill. The ER docs went straight up a hill and got stuck. They managed to slide sideways down a dune to try again. The baseball wives just dug their wheels into the sand deeper and deeper. They even had sand coming out of the air vents at one point. They burned out the clutch in the dune buggy, so they had to get another one before they could complete the task. That put them in last place.

Climbing Trees

The teams had to drive to an Oasis. The Afghanimals had problems finding it, so the ER docs got there first. The Afghanimals said it was like trying to find the labyrinth (from a couple legs back), but that’s not what they said. They said “labberninth.” The blondes didn’t say it correctly during that leg either. Has no one heard of a labyrinth or seen it spelled before? Why can no one say it? Amy said, “They are scared of David Bowie.”

As usual, Providence Amy & Jason were lost again so the Exes showed up at the Oasis at the same time that the Afghanimals finally found it. When Providence Amy & Jason finally found the Oasis, I was surprised the blondes didn’t show up right after, but they were a bit further behind them. The blondes were leaving the Oasis around the time the baseball wives showed up, so they weren’t put too far behind after their clutch-burning incident in the dune buggy.

Each team member had to pick a guy who climbed a palm tree to collect the next clue for the team member. I’m not sure why they did this since it did nothing for the race. Maybe if they had teams climb the tree it could have been interesting. The clue was a detour. Teams had to pick between dressing up a camel for a beauty contest or cutting up a bunch of vegetables and a chicken for a wedding feast. Amy thought that the camels would be mean and the wedding feast didn’t look too hard. I am super slow at preparing food so I would have to choose the camels, even though working with animals on this show is not always successful. I would also just want to work with the camels even though they can get angry and spit. I would just be laughing the entire time. Steve said he would definitely pick working with the camels and they could be quite delightful like the ones he rode in Cairo.

Express Pass

The ER docs decided to use their Express Pass so they could skip both detours and go straight to the u-turn. They decided to u-turn the Afghanimals because they lied about u-turning the bearded guys. As Amy said, “So this is now a morality game?” I didn’t get why anyone cared so much. I would have u-turned them because they couldn’t u-turn anyone else and it might put them in last place to get eliminated. There didn’t need to be another reason besides strategy. Anyway, they took off to the next task after the detour.

Slow Chopping & Hot Camels

Everyone chose the camel task except for the Afghanimals that headed to the wedding feast task. They felt since Leo owned a bar and was good with knives, he could cut up the food quickly. They could not. I mean, they did have a lot of stuff to cut up, like 10 garlic cloves and 10 onions, but they seemed really slow about it. I know I am slow, so I wouldn’t have chosen that task, but they thought they would be fast at it. They were not.

afghanimalschopping

We didn’t realize that when the teams were picking the detour, they didn’t know that their beauty contestant was a camel until they arrived. Hilarious! The Exes were the first ones to show up for that task. They had to find a camel that had the best attributes like a certain nose shape, whiskers, hair, etc. Tim was pointing out camels that had busted knees or hardly any hair on its head and neck. While pointing out the ugly camels, Amy said, “Camels are having a sad self-confidence day.” I said the camels were thinking, “We can hear you!” Tim did not get the task at all. Steve said, “Tim is so stupid. No wonder Marie is always yelling at him. She is the smartest of the two of them.” Amy said, “That’s a sad, yet true comment.”

camelconfidence

Tim was kicked by a camel, but had to get over it since the task needed to get done. I’m sure he did something to annoy the camel for the kick. Their camel was rejected the first time, so they went to grab another camel. Around that time, Providence Amy and Jason showed up. She has won many beauty pageants so she felt she knew what to look for and do to win.

While the Exes were dressing up their new camel, Marie said they should get a muzzle for her. Amy said, “We all wish you had a muzzle, Marie.” While brushing the tan and blonde camel, Tim said he did like blondes. That camel passed the test so they went off to find their next clue at a nearby tower. We guessed the Exes would u-turn Providence Amy & Jason because they viewed them as competition. Providence Amy & Jason were taking their camel up to get checked out, even though it was quite willful during the entire dressing-up process. Just before it got to the judges, the camel decided to lie down and roll in the dirt some, making itself a mess. They had to start over with another camel.

unrulycamel

While the Afghanimals slowly chopped vegetables, the Exes showed up since they were trying to find the tower that held their next clue. Marie asked if they knew where the tower was, but then realized they wouldn’t know about the tower since they were still on the detour. The Exes went to look in another location while the Afghanimals figured out that they must have finished up the camel task and that one had to be fast, so they decided to switch. Isn’t it funny that teams that switch detour tasks are the ones that end up being u-turned?

Providence Amy & Jason finished up the camel task by the time the Afghanimals showed up and picked their camel. Meanwhile, the Exes were running around not finding the tower with the next clue. They started wandering farther away from the detour area when Tim asked if they should get their bags from the car. Marie decided it might be wise, but they both wondered if they were going to go wandering off in the wrong direction for a while and completely miss the tower. They did since the tower was where the car was parked. I would say the tower wasn’t clearly a tower, if other teams had the same issue, but everyone else found the tower with no problems.

mysterioustower

While the Exes ran off in the wrong direction, the Afghanimals were being kicked by their camel. The camels really didn’t like it when the blanket was thrown on top of them. It was probably too hot. Providence Amy & Jason found the tower and the roadblock clue. They decided not to u-turn anyone. If they knew the Exes were behind them, would they have u-turned them?

The Afghanimals finished up the camel task on the first try. They ran off to see that they were u-turned. Since they had u-turned the bearded guys before, they couldn’t u-turn anyone so they just had to run back and finish slowing chopping things. Providence Amy and Jason saw the Exes running around while they were on the way to the roadblock. They said they were about a half a mile away from the detour. The Exes didn’t see them, but finally asked for directions and realized the tower was where they did the detour, so they headed back.

The Afghanimals were chopping up their vegetables again by the time the Exes showed up back at the detour. When they got to the tower, Marie said she wanted to punch Tim in the face because he wouldn’t let her look in the tower. He said she never said that. I don’t believe she ever said that because when has Marie not done what she wanted? Also, if she had said it, the camera guy would have shared that with us. When they got to the u-turn, they decided to u-turn the baseball wives because of them getting on the standby list first at the airport. That’s quite a grudge she has been holding! At this point, Steve pointed out that both the ER docs and the Exes did not u-turn teams for strategy purposes, but out of spite.

The blondes and baseball wives showed up at the detour at the same time. Once the baseball wives saw it was camels, they didn’t want to rely on the animals so they ran off to the wedding feast task. They asked the Afghanimals if it was hard and how long they had been there. They said it was easy, they were almost done and had only been there for 15 minutes. The blondes thought they had it made with the camel since they were good with hair and makeup. They said they had one hot camel. They passed on the first try. I’m not sure if the bunch of guys even saw the camels when the blondes showed up with it. The blondes were shocked that the Afghanimals were u-turned again. They didn’t get why everyone was picking on them. Why not be shocked at the baseball wives being u-turned by anyone. They are almost always in last place!

detourspin

The Afghanimals finished up the chopping right after the blondes left the detour. They were very joyous to be done with the tasks so Jamal picked up the clue guy and twirled him around. Meanwhile, the blondes were busy being lost on the way to the road block. One of them said, they were going the wrong way, they were going up. Yes, it is up on the map. It seemed like the baseball wives finished up their wedding feast task right after the Afghanimals left, but no clue if it was longer due to editing. When they saw they were u-turned, they decided the Exes did it because they are mean. That’s correct. They appeared to finish up the camel task quickly and got it approved on the first try. The blondes were still out there lost. Ashley said Ally was a bad driver and Ally said Ashley was a bad navigator.

Man-Made Rapids

After the detour, teams had a roadblock at some man-made rapids. They would be in a raft, but didn’t have to guide it. Someone else did that while they had to try to jump up from the raft and grab three flags. They got to keep going around until they got them all. The ER docs showed up way before anyone else since they skipped the detours. Nicole did it and struggled with it a bit since she didn’t feel she was tall enough to reach the flags. She missed the first two, but eventually got the hang of it. They finished up and left before any other teams showed up.

rafting

When Providence Amy & Jason showed up at the roadblock, Jason did it. While this might have been fun and challenging for the teams, it was pretty boring to watch so not much time was spent showing this roadblock and there isn’t much to say about it. No one got stuck doing it for very long and everyone left in the order they arrived to it. Providence Amy & Jason left around the time the Exes showed up. Tim did it. He said he had rafted before, but not class 4 so he found it very difficult.

Even though the blondes left the detour before the Afghanimals, they were still busy being lost, so the Afghanimals showed up first. The blondes did show up right after so they were both doing the road block at the same time.

The baseball wives showed up at the road block while the Afghanimals and blondes were at the road block, but they had to do their Speed Bump. They had to jump off a wall into a huge wave pool, swim across it while a 6-foot wave came through every thirty seconds and then climb up a ladder. This was apparently scary to Kim since it involved heights from her jumping into the water and then climbing up a ladder, and then she was worried about the wave washing her away, even though she was wearing a life jacket and the pool area wasn’t that big. She would just be washed away to their sandy shore they built at the end of the pool.

kimwater

Afghanimals and blondes finished up while Kim was busy crying on the ladder she had to climb up to get out of the pool. She kept getting knocked back into the water since she just wouldn’t climb up the ladder. She must have figured out she would quit getting hit with the water if she just moved and they got out of the pool. Thankfully, Nicky picked the road block so they were able to finish that without much drama.

Pit Stop

Unsurprisingly, the ER doctors came in first place. They both won their choice of any vehicle in Ford’s line-up with an Eco-Boost. More Eco-Boost! Phil asked them why they u-turned the Afghanimals. They were all up on their moral high horse saying they are running the race in an honest way, so they should do the same. We were all unclear how the Afghanimals lying about u-turning someone affects anyone else in the game. Amy said, “How does it matter to you how they are running the race if they follow the rules, which are not up to you to enforce?” Valid question!

Providence Amy & Jason came in second place for the fourth (fifth?) time! Will they ever come in first? The Exes came in third place. Phil asked about them u-turning the baseball wives. Marie said they did not deserve to survive another leg. Deserve!

The Afghanimals showed up at the pit stop just before the blondes. Phil asked if there was any real romance there. It seemed only if one of them won. Not surprisingly, the baseball wives showed up in last place and finally were eliminated. We’ll miss you baseball wives and you doing the hardest tasks ever! How will we know if anything the teams are doing is hard?

What do you think about the baseball wives going home? What do you think about the spiteful u-turns? Do you think other teams should have been u-turned? What team do you think will come in first in the next race? What team do you think will be eliminated?

 

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